CAHI office zone change request rejected again

The second attempt by Citizens for Affordable Housing to change the zoning so they can keep their office has failed.

The Lyon County Planning Commission followed the Dayton Regional Advisory Council in unanimously rejecting CAHI's request to change the zoning of 100 Pinecone Drive to allow professional offices.

Planning director Rob Loveberg said the department's staff was opposed to the change, calling it inconsistent with the zoning.

"The Dayton area does not lack for commercially zoned property," Loveberg said. "There are other areas more suitable for office needs."

Ron Trunk, chief executive officer of CAHI, said other office space in Dayton was not affordable for the nonprofit organization, and that the nearby areas are zoned high-density residential, which is consistent with the multi-family zoning he was seeking.

"We are looking for a zone change that would be acceptable," he said.

The building in question is a home built as part of CAHI's Gold Country Estates development, where clients can build their own homes with no down payment. The nonprofit organization was using the home as a sales office during the development of Gold Country Estates. County rules allow the use of a home in the development as a sales office, but only until all lots are sold.

Loveberg noted that in 2005, CAHI sought to change the building's zoning to commercial, and later applied for both master-plan and zone changes to commercial zoning, and was turned down.

Trunk explained that the commercial zoning was sought because last year no company would finance the property if it was not zoned commercial. Since then, he said, Harley-Davidson Financial has agreed to finance the property without commercial zoning.

Planning commissioner Chuck Davies said Trunk should have sought the zone change before building the house.

"There is an office where it isn't zoned for it," he said. "Now they want the zone changed to allow them to do what they should not have been doing in the first place."

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.